How Much Oil To Put In Lawn Mower
How Much Oil To Put In Lawn Mower To Avoid Engine Trouble
Part of lawn mower maintenance is putting the right amount of oil before running the engine.
As such, it is also very important that you must change the oil whenever it’s needed.
But how would you know how much oil to put in lawn mower so as to avoid engine problems?
Basically, putting too much or not enough oil on your lawn mower can be bad for the engine so you have to be careful regardless if you are adding or changing the oil altogether.
Always remember to check your lawnmower oil because if you run it low this could destroy it .
Dangers of Too Much or Insufficient Oil in your Lawn Mower
To clearly understand what happens when you don’t put the right amount of oil in your lawn mower, insufficient oil can make your engine to overheat.
Because there’s not enough oil for lubrication, this may result in damaging the unlubricated parts of the engine and ultimately causing the engine to break down.
It’s like burning your machine inside when lubrication is insufficient.
On the other hand, overfilling your lawn mower with engine oil will also result in bad consequences.
Once the oil gets past the recommended level, the excess could go somewhere else.
It may seep into parts where there’s no need for oil like the carburetor or to the air filter.
Since the function of the carburetor is to mix the fuel and air to make it highly combustible, a mix up of oil can render the engine difficult to start or it will occasionally die during operation.
How Much Oil is the Right Amount
Essentially, you need to check your user’s manual to know the type of oil your machine is compatible with.
However, on some manuals, the amount of oil needed by the machine is not always included which leaves us wondering how much oil to put in lawn mower and how do we know we put enough already?
Actually, the amount of oil needed by the mower depends on the size and type of the engine.
For most walk-behind mowers, if you are to change oil, you may need to fill up your mower up to around .6 of a liter.
In most Honda lawn mowers, their oil capacities are commonly .55 liters.
But then again, don’t just rely on the amount of oil recommended by some companies but rely more on your measuring tool which in this case is simply the “dipstick”.
Why? Because this will be your real-time measuring tool to actually know the exact level of oil that’s inside your oil reservoir.
Oil Dipstick Reading The Right Amount Of Oil
Clean first the area surrounding the dipstick cap to avoid any dirt from falling inside the oil reservoir.
Unscrew the dipstick cap by turning it counter-clockwise, pull it out and wipe it off with a clean rag.
On the end point of the dipstick, check for the level marks which could be holes, letters (H or L), words (High or Low) or just lines.
These indicate the low, medium and high level for oil measurement.
Regardless if you are adding oil or changing oil use the dipstick to measure the level of oil.
After draining all the oil, pour in the new oil then wait for about a minute to let the oil settle inside the reservoir then insert the dipstick to measure.
When measuring, dip the dipstick for a few seconds inside the reservoir without unscrewing the cap.
Take out the dipstick, hold it in an upright position and read the measurement.
Oil level that is between the marks of High and Low is an ideal level.
However, if you’ll be using your machine for hours, better pour in a little bit more or past the mid part between the High and Low level.
When the right amount of oil level is achieved, screw in the cap with the dipstick securely.
Change oil every 50 hours of machine operation and repeat the process of measuring the right amount of oil using the dipstick.
With a bit of practice, you can now quickly determine how much oil to put in lawn mower whenever your machine needs an oil change.
Overfilled My lawn Mower With Oil What To Do
When pouring oil in the oil reservoir, it is better that you pour small amounts in batches with an interval of 1 minute.
This is to allow the oil to stabilize inside the reservoir and settle some of it on the engine parts. But for every addition of oil, you must use the dipstick to ensure you won’t exceed your desired amount of oil.
You can use a funnel to make pouring oil easy.
In case you happen to pour too much oil and the oil level went farther than the maximum level, you only need to take the excess out by either using a suction pump or tilting the mower sideways to drain out the excess into the drain pan.
Use the dipstick again to check if the right oil level is achieved.
In some lawn mowers, they have the oil gauge to let you see the current oil level.
However, do not entirely trust this tool because you’ll never know if this is functioning properly especially if you have been using your machine for years.
How to Choose lawn Mower Engine Oil
The choice of oil grade will also depend on the requirements of your engine as well as the temperature where you are using your mower.
You can also refer to your user’s manual for oil grade guides.
Engine oils have certain grades in SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and the grade actually denotes the viscosity of the liquid.
For small engines like the lawn mower engines, the most common engine oils being used are the SAE 30 grades.
Some types of lawn mowers can also use multi-viscosity engine oils such as 10W-30 or higher.
If you are unsure about the right choice of oil, here are the types of graded oil that can provide the best performance on certain weather conditions.
Oil Types and Their Grades For Small Engines
SAE 30 – most common for small engine types but preferably used during fine weather conditions.
1: SAE 10W-30 – for varying weather conditions. Can assist easy engine start-up even on cold climate.
The oil consumption though is far greater on cold climate.
2: Synthetic SAE 5W-30 – for all temperature types, can improve start-up but with less consumption of oil.
3: SAE 5W-30 – for all temperature protection and can prevent machine stalling on cold weather.
4: Vanguard 15W-50 – commonly used for commercial grade lawn mowers and it’s an all-weather type of oil.
So be careful when choosing your engine oil.
If you have a bad choice for engine oil type like SAE 30 and use it on your machine on very cold weather
Say below 40 degrees F (4 degrees C), your engine may experience hard starting.
Over 80 degrees F (27 degrees C), your consumption of oil would be greater and you need to constantly add oil to avoid engine trouble. So choose your engine oil wisely.
Use of Degreasers
Since you will be using engine oil on your lawn mower, most likely there would be spillage or seepage in some parts of your engine particularly inside the carburetor where oil should not be.
This is why you have to be armed with a degreaser in an aerosol can to clean out the oil spills and help your engine work better.
A degreaser can be part of your regular maintenance tools that every time you work on your lawn mower engine, it needs to be there to clean out oil spillage and other dirt.
We choose the can type because it is very easy to use and has a powerful spray that its cleaning agent can quickly penetrate every crevice of your machine.
You just spray the degreaser on oil stains and dirt and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
Then spray with your garden hose to remove all dirt and oil.
Now that we have provided you tips on how much oil to put in lawn mower and how to simply determine oil level plus other tips to properly maintain a healthy working lawn mower, you are now equipped with the needed information to avoid future problems especially with regards to oil use.